


my new old favorite everything

by earlofcardigans



Category: Social Network (2010) RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-04
Updated: 2011-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-24 07:44:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlofcardigans/pseuds/earlofcardigans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a ridiculous high school AU where exactly nothing happens. based on <a href='http://tsn-kinkmeme.livejournal.com/9415.html?thread=17032647#t17032647"'>this prompt</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	my new old favorite everything

"Here. Let me get that for you."

Jesse didn't look up from where he was valiantly trying to knock off all the books on the table he claimed as his every Thursday to see who was trying to help him. He mumbled thanks and dropped everything he was currently carrying.

"Are you reading all these today?"

He honestly didn't have time to tell this person about the research he did for his papers when he was truly invested. And since his history teacher was tired of him making everyone (including her) look bad, she sent him to the library on Thursdays to find obscure and interesting things that he could talk about. Well not him. Them. The class. Her. Ms. Jones. The teacher. Jesse rarely talked to the entire class. It usually ended in disaster.

When the person coughed at him, Jesse remembered that this Thursday he wasn't alone. He looked up, prepared to make the person go away because he didn't have long, and he'd already read through two of the books, they were his favorites, so he had to find new facts.

Instead, he forgot every historical fact he had ever known. He was looking up at Andrew Garfield. Andrew Garfield was sitting at his table and smiling at him, and Jesse had completely forgotten the question. He had almost forgotten how to breathe.

"You can't be reading all these. I mean, it's nearly lunch. And who would want to miss Taco Tuesday?" Andrew smiled at him.

"It's Thursday. We've already missed Taco Tuesday. By two days." Jesse wanted to fall into a book. Seriously.

But Andrew just laughed at him, too loudly for the library, too happy to be talking to Jesse. Andrew rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, smiled at Jesse again. "You're right, of course. Some days I get my time all mixed up." He sounded shy and like he was sharing a secret with Jesse.

Jesse leaned in.

Andrew got up.

"Have fun with your books." He saluted Jesse as he picked up his bag. It was army green and covered in ridiculous band pins.

"My name's Jesse." He didn't look up from Andrew's bag.

"Of course it is." He laughed again as he left, but it didn't sound mean. Jesse liked the warmth to it.

Then he remembered what he actually said and what just happened and the fact that Andrew Garfield was even in the library, and he thunked his head down on the nearest book about World War I transportation.  
\--

"Andrew Garfield talked to me today." Jesse and Emma were having dinner on her parents' back porch, if you could call corn chips and pixie sticks dinner. He didn't look at her when he said that because he knew his face was bright red and hers would be that overjoyed Emma face she got all the time when even the littlest things happened like her hamster did a flip on her bed or something.

"Oh. OH! Andrew Garfield!" She grabbed his arm and tried to make him face her. Jesse was firmly rooted to his spot on the porch, and besides the peeling paint was way more interesting than Emma's excited face.

"Tell me everything, Eisenberg. Now."

"Well. Andrew Garfield was in the library. He sat down at my Thursday table." Jesse shrugged.

"In the library? Andrew Garfield?" Emma chewed on her hair. "Does that seem likely? Is he a book type person? I mean, you're a book type person. But Andrew Garfield. I thought his glasses were fake."

"Can we stop calling him Andrew Garfield now? We sound creepy and weird." Jesse faced her, pleading. Then he tugged her hair out of her mouth.

"We _are_ creepy and weird. Duh." Emma made a face at him that Jesse was so used to. They had been friends since she moved next door to him in the fifth grade, and she had made her 'duh' face at him at least once a day since.

"Well. Anyway. He offered to help with my books and then told me to have fun with them. But not like, like making fun of me or anything. He seemed really happy to be in the library." Jesse was still confused about that one.

"Maybe he was. I was so sure those glasses were fakes. Timberlake's are. Weren't they going out? They got matching fake glasses. How cute!" Emma rolled her eyes. She had what Jesse always thought was an irrational dislike of Justin Timberlake. Jesse just tried not to think about him at all.

It's how he got through high school, really. Don't think about the things that can destroy you. Except now, he was thinking about Andrew Garfield's hair and. That was just not good. He needed to do some homework.

"I should go. Homework." He wiped his hands on his jeans and tried to get up, but Emma caught his arm.

"Jesse? Will you do me a favor?" Emma sounded sincere. Jesse hated when she sounded sincere. He could never get away from it.

He shrugged.

"Will you go with me to Amanda's party tomorrow?" Emma balled her hands up in her lap and stared at them. "I can't. Not by myself. But I have to show up because it's Amanda." She sighed. She sounded angry. Jesse knew she was frustrated. So was he. They had been over this Amanda Thing almost all year. They were the worst best friends. "God I hate this."

He put his hand over both of hers and squeezed. "Come over and pick me out a shirt. Don't want to make you look bad."

She threw herself at him and hugged him really hard. Jesse let her because she was Emma and they were the best best friends. Emma had been there through all of his major freak outs and weirdest nights and helped him have a cat funeral that one time in eighth grade and even cried with him. The least he could do was go to a party for her.

"Oh! Andrew Garfield is almost definitely going to be there!" She was back to overjoyed. Sometimes Jesse could not keep up with the Emma Stone mood train.

"Seriously stop calling him by his whole name." He started backing out of her yard. He pointed at her. "Creepy and weird!"

"What else are we calling him, Eisenberg!" she yelled back. "If you leave it up to me, he'll have an even more embarrassing pet name. I'm going to think about it all night! Expect texts!"

Jesse shook his head and walked into his house.  
\--

Jesse's Fridays were always the worst. Justin--his Justin, not Emma's Mortal Enemy For Whatever Reason, Justin Timberlake--had free period after accounting and left Jesse alone with Joe and Kristen during trig. It was always awful. Jesse couldn't get out of school fast enough on those days.

Today, though, he had to wait by Emma's locker before he could get out of there because she had to unload her bag and find her English book. Jesse was sure she was reading The Scarlet Letter. He already offered to tell her all about it.

She wasn't there when he got there, so he stood around, fiddling with the ends of his backpack, wishing he had tied his shoe when he had noticed it last period, and generally feeling like some sort of locker menace. He was almost ready to bolt when he saw Emma walking up the hall.

Before he could lean back on her locker though, Jesse was shoved into it. He righted himself and sighed. He didn't look up and he didn't say anything. It never did any good. He always got himself into more trouble.

"Hey. Come on, man. You want to watch where you’re going?"

Jesse sighed again. Of course, it was Andrew and his friends. Of course, he was that guy. Jesse looked up to apologize because it was always better to do that face to face, but Andrew wasn't looking at him. He had his back to him actually. Jesse could barely see around him. He could still see Andrew's giant friend. Jesse forgot his name, something about Thor. It reminded him of Thor anyway. He glanced over at Emma who hadn't moved. She was never any help.

Jesse watched as Thor shrugged and turned to the other guy. Oh. Justin Timberlake. No wonder Emma wasn't all over this exchange.

Then Andrew turned around and looked right at Jesse.

"You alright? Armie thinks because he's immovable everyone is." Andrew pushed his hair back off his forehead and smiled at Jesse.

Jesse nodded, because honestly. What?

"We're leaving, Garfield." Justin sounded kind of put out at having to cater to Andrew, but Jesse's eyes widened as he watched Andrew wave a hand behind him and not even look at Justin.

"Fine. Catch you up later." He hadn't taken his eyes off Jesse. After he said that, Jesse saw him make a face like he didn't want to catch up with Timberlake.

Jesse wanted to laugh. Maybe a little hysterically. He had an inside joke with Andrew Garfield.

That was never supposed to happen.

"Garfield." Justin wasn't leaving.

Andrew sighed and turned around. He leaned on the locker close to Jesse.

"I said," he started slowly. "I'll catch up later. I'm going to walk my friend Jesse here to his car, we're going to talk about the party, maybe about how you're being such a douchebag right now, and then I'll go home, change and. See. You. Later." Andrew raised his eyebrows like he expected Justin to argue with that.

Thor was just laughing at the entire exchange. Jesse looked through Andrew's hair to see that Emma hadn't moved at all.

Justin Timberlake flipped them both off and left.

Andrew turned to Jesse and laughed, his shoulders shaking. "My friends are horrible. I think I need new ones."

"I don't know if I can help you with that. I have a Justin friend, too, that will definitely flip you off when he sees you."

Andrew laughed more.

"It might not be all about you, though. He really just can't abide so much plaid." Jesse had no idea why he thought insulting Andrew was a good plan, but it made Andrew laugh like he did in the library, too loud and warm and right at Jesse.

"Come on, Jesse. Let's go collect your statue friend and you can tell me how you feel about plaid on the way home." Andrew curled his fingers around Jesse's upper arm and half dragged him toward Emma.

"I don't have a car." Jesse was determined to never have a thought he didn't voice again when Andrew was around. It was so disturbing.

"It's alright. I can walk, despite what my jeans might be telling you." Then he stopped in front of Emma and said, "Hi. I'm Andrew. We're going to Jesse's to make fun of my shirt. You in?"

Emma nodded, her creepy big smile spreading over her face.

Jesse looked at Andrew, who had yet to let go of him. This was the weirdest day of his life so far.

"I like plaid." He glanced at Andrew and away, smiling slightly. "I have very warm feelings toward plaid."

Andrew laughed again. Jesse was loving the sound of that. This was such a problem for his life, life in general, life forever. Oh God.

"I'm glad. I'll introduce you to my closet. You can become great friends."

This time, Jesse laughed.  
\--

"I had cherry soda." Jesse held them up in front of him because he didn't really know what to do with anything going on in his backyard right now. Emma was stretched out on the grass with her shoes off and her hair back and laughing at the sun at something Andrew had said, and Andrew.

Andrew was leaning back on his elbows, picking at bits of grass and looking up at Jesse with the secret smile from earlier. It was all a little bit much, and he was starting to wonder if maybe he had had a heat stroke and was in a coma and no one had told him. Jesse sat down hard on the porch and stuck sodas out in front of him.

Emma popped up and grabbed the soda. She winked at him. Jesse definitely did _not_ like the looks of that.

"I have to go! So yeah. Wash my hair, you know." She hugged Jesse. Then whispered in his ear, "It'll be fine. It'll be great. And if it's not, text me. Okay?" She pulled back and kissed him on the cheek. Then said loudly, "So nice to meet you Andrew. Well, officially, since I obviously know who you are. I'll see you later, yes? Yes. Great! Bye!"

Then just like that, she was gone. Jesse was left sitting in a cloud of dust with wide eyes and two sodas.

"I like her," Andrew finally said. He came to sit beside Jesse on the porch, and Jesse did not watch him get up, watch the way he curled off the ground and hopped on his feet a little. He didn't.

"Yeah. She. We've. We've been friends for a really long time." Jesse didn't want either of the sodas, but he popped one open just to hear it fizz.

"Just friends?"

Something about the way Andrew said it made Jesse look at him. He didn't turn his head toward him and instead focused on the way Andrew was tying his fingers in the hem of his shirt.

"Yeah. No. Emma's. She's not my type."

Andrew got up and took the other soda from Jesse. "Thanks for this. I really have to be going. If I don't show up to Justin's and help him match hats to shoes, then the world will surely end."

"Um. Okay."

"I'll see you later, though? You will dance awkwardly with me around the room at least once, yes?"

Jesse looked up to laugh in Andrew's face, because wow, he had lost his mind. The hair gel was starting to seep through his skull, but Andrew's eyes were so wide and expectant, and Jesse wanted nothing more than to do just that with him, to hell with the school even though he'd get pushed into lockers for a week afterward. So he nodded at Andrew and watched him smile again almost as big as Emma's creepy smile, but somehow way less creepy.

Then Andrew was leaving, and Jesse was left wondering when his life was this, when before all he wanted to do was research his history paper.  
\--

"Oh my God, Jesse. We have to go." Emma stormed up to him, and she looked like she was about to cry. The Amanda Thing struck again. They hadn't been there long, Emma choosing to arrive late so it looked like she didn't care, but Jesse knew it was to avoid most of the Amanda talk. Now she was here and ready to go and Jesse wanted to leave, as well. He'd already been ignored enough for one night. And if he were to be honest, well.

Andrew wasn't there.

And how stupid was that? He didn't even know Jesse was alive until yesterday. Oh, Jesse had known about him obviously, and any other time they were at a party, he would have ignored Jesse just like everyone else (if Jesse had even gone in the first place). But now. Now he can't help but feel bad because Emma needed to leave, and he just wanted to see Andrew again.

He looped his arm around Emma's waist and dragged her to the door. Jesse put his lips in her hair when they were suddenly road blocked and said, "You know you don't have to keep doing this. She. You guys won't ever. I hate to see you hurt all the time, Em."

Emma put her head on Jesse's shoulder. It was awkward but they continued to walk like that around people and out the door.

As soon as they reached the steps though, Jesse heard his name. He sighed. On the one hand, he could ignore it and pretend it was too loud. On the other hand, he could turn him and Emma around like a unit and try to apologize, for what he wasn't sure, but he felt like apologizing because he felt that Andrew would have that face. The one he always had. On the other other hand, he could stay where he was and wait until Andrew got to him. On the other other-

Jesse quit thinking up scenarios because he only had two hands and things were getting out of control there.

In the end, Andrew found him in the exact same spot.

"We're leaving." He said to Andrew's shoulder. He couldn't really look at him. Not yet.

"Oh. Well. Um. I'm sad to hear that. I'm going to have to. Well I guess I'll dance around on my own." Andrew ran his fingers through Emma's hair, and she sniffed into Jesse's shirt. He looked up and smiled apologetically at Andrew.

 _Is she alright?_ Andrew mouthed at him over Emma's head.

Jesse tried to shake his head, but. He gave up.

"Okay. Can I. Well I'll just call you later?" Andrew nodded at him.

Behind him, Jesse could hear Andrew's friends yelling for him.

Jesse nodded back and walked Emma carefully down the stairs.

After they were in her car on the way to his house, Emma looked over at him. "He doesn't have your phone number."  
\--

Jesse spent an entire week not talking to anyone. He even went to Justin's house to do both of their homework (to be fair, Justin baked him cookies and let him not talk and spend the night on the futon in his room, and Jesse just liked writing essays), and he never said a word. Justin wasn't that concerned. It was good to have friends that didn't need the constant reassurance of his voice.

Emma was another story, and Jesse had taken to misplacing his phone so that he didn't have to answer her texts. He loved her, but her problems weren't things he knew how to work through. He could diagram most of the sentences of his life into the individual words that made sense, but Emma had things going on that Jesse never had. Mostly, he never wanted to have.

He also hadn't seen Andrew.

Jesse rolled his eyes at himself.

He had checked his books out and went to sit in the mostly abandoned hall by the orchestra room. Joe would be by there soon, and Jesse liked hearing the discordant sounds while he tried to find things in history that made today make sense.

Andrew didn't make sense.

The fact that all week no one had tried to push him down, or ruffle his hair, or steal his book and rip out pages didn't make sense. He tried not to think about it. Thinking about it led to things like rethinking his entire worldview. And, well that was never constructive.

Jesse hadn't ever been a big picture sort of person. Once, he had sat down and thought about it: his life as a whole, the world around him, life after high school, college, marriage, kids, possibly coming out to people that weren't his sisters, leaving Emma and Justin, moving anywhere.

He had had a panic attack that almost put him in the hospital.

Jesse tried to focus on as little of the future as possible: what was for dinner, was Emma coming over, where would he hide, did he finish his trig homework, was watchmaking a valued career anymore.

When he heard footsteps, he looked up expecting Joe and instead found Andrew. He still made no sense. He didn't make sense as a person. He didn't make sense in Jesse's life.

"You have a lot of ginger friends, Jesse Eisenberg."

"Do you stalk people with ginger friends? I think Emma's going blonde later this week? Maybe that will. Maybe my luck will change with stalkers." Jesse shoved his book in his bag and got up. Andrew didn't back up. They were very close.

"Jesse?"

Andrew wasn't wearing his glasses today. The ones that were or were not fake. Jesse couldn't look directly at him. He was like a blackhole and Jesse was going to cease to exist shortly.

"Jesse, can we. Will you go somewhere with me tomorrow?" Andrew was staring at his shoes.

Jesse didn't know what to say. So of course that's when he said, "You don't make any sense."

Andrew laughed nervously at him. "What?"

"It's just. Me? I mean. Why?" Jesse didn't want to have this conversation. He didn't want to know this was a joke. He didn't want to be blushing this furiously. And he didn't want Andrew to be making fun of him. Or seeing him. Ever.

"I like you." Andrew shrugged. Like it wasn't a big deal. Like nothing was ever a big deal. "You know. I. I always want to know what you're reading. Not that I'll. I don't really have time anymore. To read."

"How do you not have time to read? You make time for that. You make time for. Well. Whatever you really want." Jesse did not understand people who said they didn't have time. There was time enough in a day. Maybe Andrew slept too much.

Jesse's brain caught up to the conversation, and he stuttered out, "What. What do you mean. Always?"

Andrew laughed that shy laugh, leaned in like they had another secret. "Well I've watched you, you know."

"Well. I, uh. No. I." Jesse had no idea. He bit his lip before he started talking again.

"Can I pick you up?" Andrew was still leaned in close, his eyes big and pleading and happy. And nervous.

And Jesse felt himself nod.  
\--

“So this is my friend, Max’s, car,” Andrew told him after Jesse had climbed into it. “There were two rules, okay? One: Don’t go over sixty. And two: do not defile the backseat.” Andrew looked over at him and grinned before he took off. “So if you like, I don’t know, throw a soda back there. I’m blaming it all on you. I’ll just be like, Jesse did that. I couldn’t even stop him.” Andrew shrugged.

Jesse laughed. “Yep. That’s me. I’m a rebel.”

They drove in silence for a bit before Andrew cleared his throat. He didn’t look over at Jesse again. Jesse could tell he had that shy voice on. It was kind of nice knowing that Andrew got shy, too. He was Andrew Garfield and people loved him, so seeing him act like a normal person was a great change.

“Thought maybe we’d go walk around and look at plants?”

“I like plants. Wore my plant-watching shoes, even.” Jesse smiled at the passenger side window.

“I also notice you’re wearing plaid. I feel bad now that we don’t match.” Andrew poked Jesse’s side. Jesse yelped.

He turned in his seat to look at Andrew, but Andrew was feigning innocence so well.

“Well I wasn’t sure if you had. If your closet had conjured up this particular plaid for you, but I knew you had a fondness anyway.”

After they got slushies and walked around under very tall trees and saw colorful trees and plain trees and boring trees, Andrew stopped and turned to Jesse.

“So I talked to your Justin.” He looked slightly scared. Which Jesse could relate to. His Justin was slightly scary if you didn’t know him or know when to talk to him. He was a great person, though. Better than almost everyone Jesse knew.

“Why?”

Andrew shrugged. “I wanted to know some things about you. And while Emma is great, she’s brilliant, she doesn’t know some of the things I wanted to know, so.” Andrew stared at Jesse before he smiled. It was small and self-deprecating. Jesse might have like it the best so far of all of Andrew’s smiles.

“But your Justin, Jess. He. He kept calling me ‘English.’ Like, ‘I don’t know what you’re hoping to accomplish here, English.’ And ‘You’re gonna need to get out of my face now, English.’” Andrew’s Justin accent was slightly horrible. Jesse shook his head at him. “It wasn’t pleasant.”

Jesse patted Andrew’s arm. He was warm and solid, and Jesse liked doing it. “I hate to tell you this, Andrew, but you are English.”

“Jesse!” Andrew grabbed Jesse’s hand. “Say it isn’t so!”

Jesse laughed and laughed and didn’t even cringe when Andrew pulled him into a hug.

Later, after Andrew had taken Jesse to eat breadsticks at his favorite tiny Italian food place, and Jesse had shown Andrew the house where he used to live, they stretched out on the grass of Jesse’s backyard and watched the stars.

“Sometimes. Not a lot because it gets too big in my head and I. And I start thinking about how it’s. It is so overwhelming, but. Sometimes I think about how maybe the stars. They look back at us.”

Then Jesse closed his eyes and rolled his face away from Andrew. He said the most ridiculous things sometimes.

“Sometimes. Not a lot because I didn’t think I was going to get a chance to. I think about what it would be like to kiss you.” Andrew was practically whispering.

Jesse slowly turned his face back to Andrew’s, and Andrew was right there. So close.

Jesse asked him again, “Why?”

“You’re sort of fascinating, Jess. I know you don’t. You can’t see that. But. Trust me?”

Jesse moved closer to him. “Promise me. On Monday. At school. Trusting you won’t. This won’t.”

Andrew rubbed his hand over Jesse’s jaw, up into Jesse’s hair, drew him closer. “I’m never ignoring you. I know you haven’t been paying attention, Jesse. But. I couldn’t stop looking at you if I tried.”

Jesse leaned in, closed the distance, Andrew fit his mouth over Jesse’s slow and sweet.  
\--

Jesse closed his eyes and leaned against Emma’s locker. He had texted her as soon as Andrew left. They had spent most of Sunday in her bedroom, painting her dog’s nails, talking about things, big things, life-scary things.

Jesse still felt pretty okay with life.

But today. Today was Monday. He hadn’t seen Andrew yet. He had run into Max which was totally scary even though Max wasn’t much taller than he was. He had assured him that his car was not harmed in the process of their date. Jesse remembered a lot of nodding on his part.

He may have agreed to do someone’s homework. He’s not sure.

Emma bounced in beside him and bumped him with her hip. He waved at her, but didn’t smile.

“It’s totally fine. It’s Andrew Garfield. And he’s crazy about you.” She smiled her new, serene Emma smile.

Jesse liked it.

“I don’t know. I mean. He’s still.” Jesse shrugged helplessly. “Andrew Garfield.”

“At your service.”

Jesse turned around to see Andrew grinning at him, loopy and open.

“Oh.” Jesse blinked. He still didn’t know what to do here, but at least Andrew’s Justin wasn’t trying to kill him with his eyes anymore. And Jesse had remained unbruised for almost an entire two weeks. It was a record.

“I didn’t call for a car.” Jesse said.

“Well, good thing, sir. Because I don’t have one.” Andrew linked his arm with Jesse’s and leaned down to say close to Jesse’s hair. “How do you feel about tiny English scooters?”

“Not nearly as warmly as I do about plaid. Sorry.”

Andrew laughed and the sound lit Jesse up from the inside.

“It’s the helmet, isn’t it?” Andrew sighed. “It always comes back to helmet hair.”

This time Jesse laughed and watched Andrew’s eyes fill up with happiness and nothing but Jesse.


End file.
